Implement String Compression
Implement string compression.
Input: chars = ["a","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b"]
Output: ["a","b","1","2"]
Explanation: The letter 'a' appears once (so no number is appended), and 'b' appears 12 times, modifying the array in place to length 4.

Question

Implement string compression.

Input: chars = ["a","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b","b"]

Output: ["a","b","1","2"]

Explanation: The letter 'a' appears once (so no number is appended), and 'b' appears 12 times, modifying the array in place to length 4.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

function compress(chars: string[]): number {
    let write = 0;
    let read = 0;

while (read < chars.length) {
        const currentChar = chars[read];
        let count = 0;

while (read < chars.length && chars[read] === currentChar) {
            read++;
            count++;
        }

chars[write++] = currentChar;

if (count > 1) {
            for (const digit of count.toString()) {
                chars[write++] = digit;
            }
        }
    }

return write;
}